Edmund avoids Pouille again in Paris

By Jake Davies

Roger Federer’s withdrawal from Paris means Edmund avoids a second meeting with Pouille, and will face Evgeny Donskoy in the Paris Masters first round next week

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – Kyle Edmund‘s long wait for a first ATP final was extended as the British No. 3 stumbled in a three sets defeat to the World No.23 Lucas Pouille in the semi-final of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.

Lucas Pouille defeats Kyle Edmund 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-3

It was a missed chance for Kyle Edmund who now stares at a 0-4 losing record in semi-final play and will be chomping at the bit to change that statistic in 2018.

It felt like Edmund would rue his missed chances as he could not convert on a total of six break points before the first set moved into a tiebreak. The Frenchman sailed into a 4-0 lead and held two set points, but the resilient Edmund turned the set around in his favour to win it 9-7 in the tiebreak.

A severe loss of focus at the beginning of the second set really changed the course of the match and Edmund was chasing the scoreboard from that moment forward.

Pouille added salt in the wound with two further breaks in the third set to extinguish Edmund’s hopes of getting to that elusive ATP final in Vienna.

Kyle Edmund vs Evgeny Donskoy [LL] H2H: Edmund leads 1-0

Edmund will now travel to Paris for the last Masters 1000 event before the finale of the season at the World Tour Finals in London. Edmund is yet to make a real impact at Masters level, but would be pleased with facing the lucky loser Evgeny Donskoy in the first round of the event.

Donskoy is one of just four men to beat Roger Federer in the 2017 season, where he pulled off one of his biggest ever wins by defeating the nineteen-time Grand Slam winner in a shock result in Dubai earlier this year.

The Russian has been winning plenty of matches this season and has pushed his ranking inside the Top 100 with good performances on the Challenger circuit, but I think Edmund will have too much for Donskoy when they meet for a second time in their head-to-head.

Edmund won their only previous meeting, but it was on a much faster court in Beijing, so it should be an interesting watch to see who benefits the most on one of the slower surfaces on tour in Paris.